La Vara’s Alex Raij Accuses Ken Oringer of Copying Her Recipe(s)

Alex Raij tells Eater that she is “resentful, in some ways” about how her “expression of tapas” has been emulated, and sometimes straight-out mimicked. Then she basically slams soon-coming-to-NYC Toro and its chef/owner Ken Oringer because “he straight-up took the uni panini from us. I know he took it, and he knows he took it.” She stews, “It’s one of the few original things I’ve created in my life. He also tried to take our chorizo with chocolate and asked us where we bought our chairs at Tia Pol before we first opened.” Another Raij’ing copy cat? Michelle Bernstein … allegedly! [Eater]